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jdemaris
03-17-2005 05:59:54
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Re: Dry clutches in reply to Pete/ME, 03-17-2005 03:07:38
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It depends on why they got stuck, and subsequently, how rusted things became. If you push down hard on your brake pedal, can you still move your steering-levers freely? If not, the cross-shafts have rusted fast. If you DO get it free, you might have to keep running it, and readjusting as the rust wears off. Sometimes you have to reach into the clutch housings and adjust the pressure-plate fingers to get some free-play. If you do, use a wrench with a string tied to it - otherwise, you'll probably drop it into the housing and won't be able to get it back out - not even with a magnet. Many times the major problems are from water-instrusion. Either rain, snowmelt, or driving though creeks lets water into the clutch housings. Then, when it gets parked, you're screwed. We used to recommend to customers that they leave the water-drains out of the housings - or at least take them out once a week, to drain off moisture. One problem with that though, is if the drains are left out, and you drive into water, the housings fill up with water. I know of, and have worked on many dry-clutch Deeres that store fine - without getting stuck. I've got six dry-clutch crawlers, and all of them are parked all winter, on wood-blocks and covered with tarps. Never had one get stuck yet, but I drain them every fall. At one time, Deere sold what they called "heavy duty" clutch plates that were metallic instead of fiber, and they were supposed to be less prone to getting stuck in damp conditions. We never installed any because, even in the 1970s, they were too expensive. When Deere changed over to the wet-clutches with the "C" series, we had just as many problems with them as we did the dry - but the wet clutches were more expensive to fix. The wet cluches never got stuck, but we had all kind of slippage problems, leaks, automatic brake adjusters getting too tight, etc. I didn't see any great overall advantage from dry to wet. Maybe now, since parts prices are so high, there is? - I don't know.
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